NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

Wow- what a whirlwind trip this has been to the Palaka people in the North of Ivory Coast. We spent 8 nights in the village and now are back in Ferke. The last night out there was the special all night church service memorial for Verne’s dear mother Jean Johnson, whom, as you heard, went to be with the Lord on January 3rd. It went well with much singing, Bible readings, and preaching – and a lot of circle dancing too.
Denny has been able to get a lot done on the translation, all of Acts was checked with a team of people from the village where we lived, Matthew is ready to be final-checked with a consultant and Ephesians is well under way too. Denny and I with some of the village believers visited Jo [ they are now on lesson 44 of Chronological teaching, last week was Zacharias and Elizabeth ] and Lam 3. Lam 3 actually has a church building that a group of ladies from the Baptist church in Ferke had built for them. It still needs doors, windows and plastering, but they are already using it anyway.
Literacy went well- a new teacher was trained from another village [Gandjawa- he is a young man who was befriended by Seth when he was out there a few years ago] and the newer ones from ‘our’ village were in on the session for a refresher in how to teach. We had 3 really good nights in Ferke with a group of people who could already read in French who wanted to read in Palaka. Jean-Baptiste did a great job of guiding them through the 3 Primer reading books. At the weekend we will be in Abidjan with a group of Palaka people who live there to greet them and to introduce them to Palaka literature and Bible books too.
I made an appointment and visited the Prefet [Prefect] of Ferke and then Denny and I visited the Sous-Prefet too who is out closer to the village. We presented them with the materials we use for literacy so that they know what is going on. We were warmly received.
Yesterday was market day here and the town here fills up with people from all over the region. We had many visitors with many needs, the day passed with much prayer about how to help so many people.
Today we will head off to the south where we will spend the weekend and then the translation checker Paul arrives on Monday, and the check begins with him in full jet lag on Tuesday! Sibiri and Daniel are the two who will be working alongside Denny for the check. I will be able to be there for the first day of checking as I fly back on Tuesday evening, and will get home to North Cotes on Wednesday at about midnight. I have a long layover on the way.
We have heard some terrible stories about things that happened in the troubles, but local people here are very encouraged with how the country is making progress after those difficult years.
Thank you so much for praying. Everyone here greets you
MUCH love and God bless
Mandy, out here- on a very sunny day

Thank you so much for your love and help  - U R so precious to us.

 Here are some pictures of our summer- here is me on an outreach to kids in Whitby where I grew up – I was on the team for a week.

AND then….>

 >….. we went to our friends’ son’s wedding in Bavaria, Germany, a lovely occasion. He married a young lady from Germany who worked with me in the Nursery two years ago.

 

And finally here are Verne and Denny Johnson who spent the summer in Sefognekaha doing Bible translation and encouraging the believers there. The struggle in the country is over now and life is slowly starting to get back to some kind of normality. A long process of recovery.
Allan and I plan to visit out there again in 2012.

We send you love and greetings from us here at the EURO Bible School and Missions Training Centre. Term begins on Monday, and there are 69 students this term. Mandy will be caring for 14 very young children and Allan is in charge of many different areas and also teaching this year- beginning with classes on Pre-evangelism and then Animism. Andrew is in his last year of college. Paige and Faye are moving here with us this year too.
 God bless and have a good Fall.

This week we spoke on the phone to Eric from the Palaka village where we lived, and he was very happy about the fact that the whole church had walked to ‘L. Three’ 2 weeks ago to ‘have church’ with the new believers there- so good to hear that.
In the summer Mandy walked to see a very old lady in a village about 3 hours from where we were with 2 Palaka women to share the Gospel, a request from her son who is not a believer yet- but may be now! Well Eric told us that she passed away last week and her son [the chief of the village actually] asked the Palaka church to do a Christian burial for her, which they did. Eric said it was a really wonderful time and the whole village was there. The people in that place have only 7 more lessons to go in the whole Chronological teaching. It is so encouraging to hear about the 2 outreaches to these villages and to hear the outcome too. Thank you Lord.
This week I lost one of my best helpers from the Nursery- she decided to leave us- and as they are volunteers we could do nothing but let her go- we really need a replacement for her until July. Please pray that we find someone.
We have a Residential Conference here at NTM in June- go to the ntm.org.uk website for details, also there is an awesome Youth Conference planned for April 1-3, it will be a bit far for those of you across the Pond, but anyone reading this from Europe can come on over

It is very cold here this week, we are cut off today in North Cotes and we have had power cuts last night and today. I was writing my Christmas cards sitting under the emergency lighting by the front door last night! Andrew was lost without facebook and telephone contact. The power is back on now obviously- we hope it stays on!
Ballot results in IC are very slow in coming out, causing problems in the cities we hear, rumors abound and trouble is brewing. We pray on for that beloved place.

Allan and I have just been to a conference, the nice thing was that it took place in Spain- yay. Very nice, and Ryan Air even took us there cheaply! We learned a lot about Leadership Skills and Cultural Awareness- all good stuff We are much in prayer for the Ivory Coast these days- the big date to remember is November 28th please, there are only two candidates in a run-off. We trust it will be peaceful.

 

Well, the students here at the NTM European Bible and Missionary Training Center will all be graduating on July 23rd. This year has flown by. We will have 2 Graduation Banquets at the end of term, one for the Missions Course students and one for the Bible School students- we do two so that the two classes can babysit for each others’ children

 The three German volunteers who help Mandy in the Nursery will leave too at the end of July- we still need another girl to volunteer to help us for the next school year yet. Germany requires that their young people do a ‘social’ year, it is a great blessing to us here at NTM. There are German volunteers in Brazil, PNG and maybe other places that I do not know about,  serving with NTM.

Our flight to Africa is on July 27th. That came around very quickly. We have had all the injections, we have visas, we have malaria meds and mozzy nets The four weeks we will be there in the village where we used to live will go too quickly. Our co-workers Verne and Denny are out there already. They are due to leave 5 days before we do. It will be great to work together for a few sweet days out there. The books of Ruth and Jonah are printed and ready in a box by our suitcases Please pray that the village believers will read them and be blessed. We REALLY value your prayers. God bless.